The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1887-09-30
THE DIVINE PLUMB LINE.
REV. Or. TALMAGE'S SERMON AT
THE BROOKLYN TABERNACLE.

n straight Up ana DOWN Neisioh
Observation-Disclosures Panics Caused by n
Lack of Confidence-Irain Workers
Need as Much sympathy AS Laborcrs.
BROOKLYN. Sept. 25.-After the great
congregation had sung the long meter
doxology in the Brooklyn tabernacle this
morning DR.. Talmage expounded the sixth
chapter of the second epistle to the Corin-
thans, setting forth the importance of
separation from bad fellowship, and say =.
ing that man is no better than the COM
pany he keeps. Professor Henry Eyre
Brown played an organ solo, Sonata No.
in ID minor, by Guillmant. The SUBJ
iect of the sermon was "a Straight Up
and Down Religion" and the text was
Amos vii, 8: "And the Lord said unto
me, Amos, what seest thou? and l said,
A plumb line" DR.. Talmage said:
The solid masonry of the world has to
me a fascination. Walk about some of
the triumphal arches and the cathedrals,
four or six hundred years old, and see
them stand as erect as when they were
builded walls of great height for cen
turtles, not lending quarter of an inch
this way or that. So greatly honored
were the masons who builded these walls
that they were free from taxation and
called ''free' masons. The trowel gets
most of the credit for these buildings, and
its clear ringing on stone and brick has
sounded across the ages. But there is
another implement of just as much inn
portance as the trowel, and my text rec
ognizes it. Bricklayers and stone masons
and carpenters, in the building of walls,
use an instrument made of cord, AZ the
end of which lump of lead is fastened.
They drop it over the side of the wall,
and, as the plummet naturally seeks the
center of gravity in the earth, the work
man discovers where the wall recedes
and where it bulges out and just what is
the perpendicular. Our text represents
God as standing on the wall of character,
which the Israelites had built, and in that
way measuring it. "And the Lord said
unto me, Amos, what seest thou? and I
said, A plumb line" ~l-'fS,
What the world wants is a straight up
and down religion. Much of the SO called
piety of the day bends this way and that,
to suit the times. 1t is horizontal with a
low state of sentiment and morals. We
have all been building wall of charac-
ter, and it is glaringly imperfect and
needs reconstruction. How shall it be
brought into the perpendicular? Only by
divine measurement. "And the Lord
said to me, Amos, what seest thou? and
said, A plumb line."
The whole tendency of the times is to
make us act by the standard of what
others do. If they play cards, we play
cards. If they dance, we dance. If
they read certain styles of books, we read
them. We throw over the wall of our
character the tangled plumb line of other
lives and reject the infallible test which
Amos saw. The question for me should
not be what you think is right, but what
God thinks is right. This perpetual ref
ference TO the behavior of others, as
thoHgh It decided anything but human
falhbility, is mistake as wide as the
world. There are 1000 plumb lines in
use, but only one is true and exact, and
that is the line of Cons eternal right.
There is mighty attempt being made to
ments. To many they seem too rigid.
The tower of Pisa leans over about thirt-
cen feet from the perpendicular, and peo-
pie go thousands of miles to see its grace
full inclination, and by extra braces and
various architectural contrivances it is
kept leaning from century to century.
Why not have the ten granite blocks of
Sinai set a little aslant? Why not have
the pillar of truth leaning tower? Why
is not an ellipse as good as a square? Why
is not an oblique as good as straight up
and down? Ny friends, we must have
standard: shall it be Gods or mans?
The divine plumb line needs to be
thrown over all merchandise. Thousands
of years ago Solomon discovered the ten
dency of buyers to depreciate goods. He
saw a man beating down an article lower
and lower, and saying it was not worth
the price asked, and when he had pur-
chased at the lowest price he told every
body what sharp bargain lie had struck,
and how he had outwitted the merchant.
Proverbs Xxx, a. "It is naught, it is
naught, saith the buyer; but when he is
gone his way, then he boasteth." So ut
terly askew is society in this matter that
you seldom find seller asking the price
that he expects to get. He puts on
higher value than he proposes to receive,
knowing that he will have to drop. And
if he wants fifty, he asks seventy-fve.
And if he wants 1900 he asks $500.
sit is naught," saith the buyer 1.-The
fabric is defective; the style of goods is
poor; can get elsewhere better article
at smaller price. 1t is out of fashion;
it is damaged; it will fade; it will not
wear WELL" After while the mer-
chant, from over persuasion Or desire to
dispose of that particular stock of goods,
says, swell, take it at your own price,"
and the purchaser goes home with light
step and calls into his private office his
confidential friends, and chuckles while
he tells how that for half price he got the
goods. In other words he lies, and was
proud of it. Nothing would make times
as good and the earning of livelihood
so easy as the universal adoption of the
law of right. Suspicion strikes through
all bargain making. Men who sell know
not whether they will ever get the
money. Purchasers know not whether
the goods shipped will be according to the
sample. And what, with the large num-
Der of clerks who are making false en-